Mu Shuoqian took off his suit jacket as soon as he entered the room, handing it over to her quite naturally.
Gu Qili could only catch it with both hands. Soon after, a tie was added to her burden. The clothes, worn for a day, still carried the scent of men's cologne intricately mingled with a faint hint of tobacco. The combined fragrances were not off-putting, but rather addictive, making one unwilling to move their nose away.
He walked over to the bar and took a wine glass from the rack. His long fingers lightly skimmed over a row of bottles in the wine cabinet, but it seemed he couldn't find a bottle to his liking at that moment and looked quite displeased.
"Go to the wine cellar and bring up a bottle of red wine."
Gu Qili was still lost in thought at the doorway when she suddenly heard him speak, which reminded her to hang up his clothes.
"Which wine should I bring?" she asked.
"Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot."
Confused, Gu Qili awkwardly asked, "What are Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot? Are they names of wines?"
He looked at her with a mocking gaze, playing with the wine glass in his hand, and sneered, "The daughter of the Wine God, Gu Dezhong, is actually telling me she doesn't know what Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are. Didn't he teach you any of this?"
"I'm allergic to alcohol." Gu Qili thought of her father and couldn't help feeling a bit sad. Official source is N()velFire.net
"Even if you don't understand wine, what good will it do to redeem your father's vineyard? It will only prolong its struggling existence for a few more years," he said.
"I can learn what I don't understand," replied Gu Qili as she turned and entered the wine cellar, no longer wanting to listen to his cold remarks.
The reason he chose to live on the ground floor was so he could have a basement dug out. Following the spiral staircase down, shelves around were laden with various types of wine. Before the Gu Family went bankrupt, Gu Dezhong had a similar wine cellar, where he loved to linger often for hours on end.
Although Gu Qili didn't understand wine, she noticed that many of the labels on the bottles were in French. Her father had mentioned that France was a renowned wine country.
Soon, she found the names Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot among the dazzling array of red wines. It turned out they weren't the names of the wines, but the names of the grapes used to make them.
This small sense of accomplishment gave her what felt like a new understanding of wine. Among the available options, she chose a bottle with a name she thought very elegant and took it upstairs.
She had heard from her father that some wines needed to be decanted in advance to allow the air to react with the wine, making it more delicious. She didn't know if the bottle she had chosen also needed to be decanted.
She carefully placed the wine in front of Mu Shuoqian, watching for his reaction.
He glanced at the bottle and a mocking smile curled at his lips. "Are you planning to serve me a bottle of wine that needs more than three hours to decant as breakfast?"
Finding the right flavor he wanted was already difficult, but now there was another issue. Gu Qili had researched in the cellar; some labels mentioned the grape variety, others did not. As for whether wines needed decanting or how long it should take, there were no instructions at all—it all depended on accumulated knowledge.
"Then I'll go down and pick up a few more bottles."
"Never mind." He put the glass back in its place and left the bar with his long strides, "I'm not in the mood anymore."
She had never known there was so much to consider about a bottle of wine; she had inadvertently upset him. The rejected bottle of wine was still on the bar. Gu Qili carefully picked it up and returned it to its original spot.
Facing the wine cellar's star-like array of bottles, she vowed that one day, she would remember all their names.